Circling the plane
April 2024
exhibition by Eleanor Amor and Lorna Quinn at Seventh Gallery,
Curated by Isabella Hone-Saunders.
Introduction to 'Circling the plane', written by Isabella Hone-Saunders.
Eleanor's sculptures and Lorna's paintings each investigate speculative imaginations and dreams. Key concepts drawn upon in these works consider human fantasies, subconscious fears, concerns and illusions.
Though their works are disparate they share a connectedness in their thematic underpinnings and visual language. Each references German Expressionism through their notable colour palettes and use of light and shadow.
Eleanor’s delicate and spindly metal sculptures, while particularly elegant and exact in their execution, evoke a sense of unease and precarity. The influence of German Expressionist film set design is evident to those who are familiar with it; exaggerated lines and shadows, severe angles, set against warped and elongated structures, give the affective impact of terror and disorder.
Eleanor makes tangible manifestations of existential dread and creates an environment where the notion of, or familiarities associated with, home offers no sanctuary.
Lorna’s artistic influences span broad art historical periods from medieval panel painting to Renaissance painters as well as Romantic artists. Her works are precise and controlled and reflect her desire to make clear order of what she notes to be the “ambiguities of the present”.
The canvases attempt to become sanctuaries of shelter for those seeking solace in the absence of societal cohesion. Though in enacting this Lorna suggests that the work has the opposite effect and instead they become a reminder of the shallowness of our ideals. That they have an alienating impact. By rendering literal contexts as vessels of containment, Lorna confronts the inherent contradictions between fantasy and reality.
Despite not sharing the same medium, both practitioners present meticulous works, they are complementary and considered when set together and encourage a broader dialogue that reflects upon landscapes, possible environments, architecture, home and shelter. Converged here, each artist has outwardly portrayed their internal desires, unsettling anxieties and their insecure or tenuous relationship with their current realities.
- Isabella Hone-Saunders
Eleanor Amor is an artist based in Adelaide, Australia. Working with casting techniques, metal, stone, and ready-made objects; Eleanor’s practice explores the themes of entrapment, support, and paranoia through sculptural forms and dream motifs.
Having graduated from the University of South Australia in 2018 with a Bachelor of Contemporary Art, Eleanor Amor has been awarded the Helpmann Travel Award and was the recipient of the 2019 George Street Studios Residency. She has performed at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Samstag Museum of Art. Eleanor has exhibited at the British School at Rome, Praxis Artspace, FELTspace, and Bus Projects.
Lorna Quinn is a Melbourne-based artist born in East Melbourne in 1995. I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours at Victorian College of the Arts in 2018.
Early successes in my career have included receiving the Lionel Gel Foundation Award (2016), designing a large-scale public hoarding for the Metro Tunnel Creative Program (2019), participating as a finalist in the Glover prize (2022, 2023), winning the Local Art Prize in the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (2023) and participating in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s inaugural Rise exhibition (2023).
